Introduction to E-governance & E-government:
- E-governance is composed of information technology, people, and governments.E-governance is the application of electronic means to improve the interaction between government and citizens; and to increase the administrative effectiveness and efficiency in the internal government operations. Further, it is the application of information technology to the Government processes to bring Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) governance.
- The strategic objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for e-governance community comprised of citizens, civil society organizations, private companies, government lawmakers, and regulators on networks. Rapid growth of Internet has led governments in both developing and developed countries to use the technology for an efficient and effective service to the citizens. Besides fast delivery of services, Internet technology enables to bring more transparency in governance and many benefits to the e-governance community. With the advent of Internet and related technology ,the government services can be extended to all geographical segments in the country round the clock, all days in a year.
- E-governance provides up-to-date information from the government databases in a real time mode. In addition to better and fast monitoring of government tasks, e-governance generates more revenue through online delivery of services. A careful planning about the e-governance issues can fully reap the benefits of it; the other side of the coin is the challenges in implementing the plan.
What is e-Government?
- e-Government or electronic government can be defined as government activities taking place over electronic communications among all levels of government, citizens and the business community. These include: acquiring and providing products and services; placing and receiving orders; providing and obtaining information; and completing financial transactions.In a broader sense, it is the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for enhancing the performance of government functions and services through the utilization of digital technologies.
Domains of e-government :
- governance,
- information and communication technology(ICT),
- business process re-engineering(BPR)
- e-citizen.
OR
“e-Government or electronic government" can be defined as government activities takingplace over electronic communications among all levels of government,citizens and the business community. These include: acquiring and providing products and services; placing and receiving orders; providing and obtaining information; and completing financial transactions. In a broader sense, it is the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for enhancing the performance of government functions and services through the utilization of digital technologies”.
E-Governance Applications
- To bridge the gap between government and citizens, to provide effective and efficient services, to increase productivity and to extend other benefits to its citizens, the governments of various countries introduced e-Governance applications.The applications employ information technology, telecommunication network incorporating government policies over Internet to serve the citizens better. The growing importance of e- Governance, spreading its branches in varied fields is going out of control. This is sprouting up new issues giving raise to the unsuccessful penetration of the e- Governance applications and is to be controlled.The three major fields of e-Governance applications are :
Government to Business(G2B) and
Government to Government(G2G).
G2C and G2B both are categorized as front office model, and G2G is called back office model.
| G2C services | G2B services |
| income tax | employees' social contributions |
| job search services | corporate tax |
| social security | VAT declaration and notification |
| personal identification | registration of new company |
| car registration | statistical data submission |
| building permits | customs declaration |
| declaration to the police | environment-related permits |
| public libraries | public procurement |
Implementation issues in e-governance application
General issues:A number of issues have arisen in e-governance Application are following :
- The project implementation is generally vendor driven.
- Lack of standardization ( For example, similar projects are carried out by different state agencies using incompatible file formats and application standards)
- Reverse compatibility of application with legacy systems are missing in several projects.
- The IT Infrastructures are procured before building the application or digitizing the data.
- Physical security is emphasized, whereas the Logical and application security is left to vendors in many cases.
- Lack of understanding by the departments, for the components of e-governance applications, which can be outsourced or can be carried out in house.
G2C implementation issues :
- Population Explosion:India is fifth biggest country in area & stands second with dense population of 1,015 millions.Increased population increases the need of citizens and can be answered through computerization of the public needs through e-Governance applications.This satisfies to some extent but it is not in a position to meet the demands of the huge public.
- Poverty:About 30% of the Indian population is below poverty line. They don’t even have
proper food, clothing and house to reside.It is becoming meaningless to computerize the
government activities, which are not in reach of poor citizens. - Illiteracy:Literacy rate is around 60% & rest 40% are dependent on farming,labor
works and can’t even read or write and hence the online activities are not in approach of the illiterate public. - Villages:India is with more than 6 lacs of undeveloped villages with 72% of rural
population.The urbanization & other development activities are far away from the near
feature which ripples the G2C activities. - Corruption:Improper utilization of funds,Corruption, favoritism,unnecessary involvement or negligence of officials and political leaders is hampering the growth of G2C
implementation. - Telecom Problems:The infrastructure of telecommunication services are to be developed and existing system should be improved with advancements like ubiquitous, broad band and other future technologies.
- Unaffordable Cost:The cost of telecom and internet activities is not within the reach of
general public.Lack of financial elements like affordability with public,telecom rationing
system, free browsing centers etc is limiting the progress. - Funding Problems:India is a developing country requiring a greater financial support to
launch G2C projects.Insufficient allotments of funds for investigating the project, analysis,
developing, launching and maintaining is one of the major issues. - Lack Of Reliability:Reliability of the political parties and the stability of government is
the foremost factor for G2C development. Various G2C projects are proposed to initiate but nagging owing to lack of political reliability, regional discrimination's etc. - Lack Of Technical Skills: Lack of technical knowledge to our politicians, authorities is
other aspect hampering the progress of G2C activities.
Computer Illiteracy: Though some section of Public is educated, they lack technical
knowledge and are far away from minimum computer and internet operating skills. - Category Of Citizens: The G2C activities should target the category of citizens to whom
they are designed for. Improper target designing leads to ambiguity of application leading to its failure. - Human Touch:Value should be given for “human touch and feelings” rather than totally
concentrating on the technical aspects and designing activities. Importance for human
feelings, pleasing interactions and concern towards citizens are missing elements. - Economic And Financial Issues:Short of financial clarity, economic transaction over
internet on government tariffs, customs and taxation policies creating mishap to G2C
application utility. Proper regulatory agencies, online economic strategies correlating
traditional strategies are missing creating issues. - Lack Of Trust:The key financial barrier of G2C is electronic payment systems. Suspicious of fraud in money transfer activities and the incidents of cyber crimes, online bank thefts supported it.
- Lack Of Online Support:Public require online support in clarifying their doubts while
working with G2C applications. Lack of privacy, protection, confidentiality, online
documents and other transactional activities of some applications are creating ambiguity.
bhavesh
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